Electrical treater having dry oil barrier supply



29,1931. H. F. FISHER ET AL 1,338,933 ELECTRICAL THEATER HAVING IQRX OILBARRIER SUPPLY Original Filed Nov. 28, 1927 f N $i s 20 2 M WV 4 M M v@QQ; M V as H 1 26 A 27 $4 l j \t' $1; i :l

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I m/M Patented Dec. 29, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HARMON F.FISHER AND WILLIAM WOELFLIN, OF LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA, AS-

SIGN OBS T PETROLEUM RECTIFYING COMPANY OF CALIFORNIA, OF LOS'ANGELES,CALIFORNIA, A CORPORATION OF CALIFORNIA ELECTRICAL THEATER HAVING DRYOIL BARRIER SUPPLY Application filedNovember 28, 1927, Serial No.236,090. Renewed September 4, 1931.

This invention relates to electrical treaters of the characters designedfor separating liquids or a solid and a liquid, and it relatesparticularly to a treater for efiiciently separating water and oil fromemulsion. n the co-pending application entitled Dehydrator with meansfor directing emulsion through a high intensity field, Serial No.203,253, filed July 2, 1927 of Harmon F. Fisher, there is described atreater which provides a central high intensity electrode and an outerlow intensity electrode. The wet oil or the fluid to be treated ispassed through the treating space immediately around the centralelectrode and treated oil or dry oil is passed through the treating oilaround the wet oil to form a dielectric barrier given size, high fieldintensity electrode is greatly increased and also the commercial qualityof the treated oil is improved when the circulation of oil through theshield is aided, augmented or entirely provided by some auxiliary meansother than the high velocity of the wet oil jet. One method of securingthis auxiliary aid to the circulation of wet oil is to provide a secondlarger stream or jet of treated oil, surrounding the first or inside jetof wet oil. This may be accomplished by placing a second larger diameternozzle concentric with the smaller wet oil nozzle and pointing directlyinto the throat of the surrounding electrode so that the outerenveloping jet of circulating oil is moving parallel with and in thesame direction as the inner jet of wet oil. This second outer nozzle isconnected with a suitable dry oil or dielectric barrier supply source.We have found that by this means the treating capacity of a giventreater of this character can be increased from two to ten-fold thecapacitv of the simple treater not having the auxiliary aid to circulatethe wet oil.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide an electrical treaterof this character in which the fluid to be treated is carried throllghthe treating space by a dielectric medium.

A further object of theinvention is to provide an electrical treater inwhich the dielectric medium keeps the fluid to be treated in the properpart of the treating space.

Further objects of the invention lie in our novel method of electricallytreating a fluid by passing this fluid through a treating space incontact with a dielectric medium.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a treater'in whichthe dielectric medium envelops the fluid to be treated.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be pointed out in thefollowing description.

In the following description reference will be had to the accompanyingdrawings in which the invention is diagrammatically illustrated. In thedrawings:

Fig. 1 represents a-vertical cross-section through a preferredembodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a cross-section taken on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1. T

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section showing the nozzle of the invention.

Referring to the drawings in detail, the numeral 11 represents a tankhaving a d oil outlet 12 and a precipitate outlet 13. Supported from thetop of the tank 11 is an insulator 14 which carries a spider 15, thisspider 15 supporting a live or surrounding electrode 16 of theinvention. This surrounding electrode 16 is of annular cross-section andnear the lower end thereof is provided with a throat 17. The portion ofthe electrode 16 below the throat 17 is provided in the form of an apron18.

Surrounding the vertical leg or nozzle 20 is an outer nozzle 26 which isin communication with a barrier medium supply 27. The barrier mediumsupply 27 is provided with a fitting 28 which surrounds the vertical leg20 and which supports the nozzle 26. The lower part of the fitting 28 isprovided with a packing 30 which surrounds the vertical leg 20.

An electric field is established between the surrounding and centralelectrodes 16 and 22 by means of a transformer or other current sourceindicated by the numeral 32. The transformer 32 has a secondary 33, oneside of which is connected by a conductor 34 to the tank 11, in thismanner being connected to the central electrode 22, and the other sideof the secondary 33 is connected by a conductor 35 to the surroundingelectrode 16, this conductor 35 passing through an insulation bushing36.

In the operation of the invention the tank 11 is first filled with adielectric barrier which may be dry or treated oil. Fluid to be treated,which is in this case emulsion, is directed into the space between theelectrodes 16 and 22 by means of the vertical leg or nozzle 20. Previousto this time, an electric field is established in this space.Simultaneously with the supplying of emulsion to the treating space, adielectric medium. or barrier, which is preferably a dry or treated oil,is supplied to the nozzle 26 and passes upward into the treating spacearound the wet oil. The dielectric medium is preferably under a highpressure and issues from the nozzle 26 under considerable velocity,issuing therefrom, as indicated by arrows 4,0 in Fig. l. The wet oilneed not be under any considerable pres-' sure, since the action of thedielectric medium is to carry the wet oil through the treating space atthe same time confining it to that area around the central electrode 22which is the ortion of the field of highest potential gradient. Thedielectric medium, in addition to carrying the wet oil through the fieldat a proper rate of speed, envelops it and confines it, as previouslyexplained, to the proper treating field. The in]ection of the dielectricmedium into the throat 17 causes the dielectric barrier, which is in thetank 11, to circulate into the throat 17, as indicated by arrows 42. Thedielectric medium and the dielectric barrier prevent -hort-circuitingbetween the electrodes 16 and 22, and thus maintain the efficiency ofthe treater. The entire mass of treated emulsion or treated wet oil,together with the dielectric medium and dielectric barrier, pass fromthe upper end of the treating space, as indicated by arrows 43, and passdownward around the apron 18 and pass into the throat 17 in the form ofa dielectric barrier. The elongated path provided by passing around theapron 18 assists materially in promoting the separation of suspendedmatter from the oil as shown and claimed in a copending applicationfiled by Harmon F. Fisher, Serial No. 233,291. The water particles, ofcourse, gravitate to the bottom of the shell 11 and are withdrawnthrough the pipe 13, the ver dry oil passing to the top of the shell 11and eing withdrawn through the pipe 12.

In this invention the rate of treatment is much greater than in asimilar treater not having the dielectric medium supply means whichsupplies a dielectric medium for enveloping the wet oil and carrying itthrough the treating space.

We claim as our invention:

1. An electrical treater comprisin an innor nozzle; a central electrodeexten ing into said innner nozzle; means for supplying a fluid to betreated to said inner nozzle, said fluid being discharged therefromimmediately around said central elctrode; an outer nozzle adapted todischarge an envelope of dielectric medium, said envelope surroundingsaid fluid discharged from said inner nozzle; a surrounding electrodearound said central electrode and around the streams of fluid anddielectric medium discharged from said nozzles; and means for impressinga potential difference between said central and said surroundingelectrodes.

2. An electrical treater comprising: a central electrode; an innernozzle electrically connected to said central electrode and adapted todischarge an envelope of fluid to be treated therearound; an outernozzle adapted to discharge an envelope of dielectric medium, saidenvelope of dielectric medium surrounding said fluid discharged fromsaid inner nozzle; a surrounding electrode around said central electrodeand around the streams of fluid and dielectric medium discharged fromsaid nozzles; and means for impressing a potential difference betweensaid central and said surrounding electrodes.

3. A method of treating a fluid in an electric field formed between acentral electrode and a surrounding electrode, which method includes thesteps of introducing an envelope of a dielectric medium into said fieldin spaced relationship with said surrounding electrode, said envelopebeing concentric with said central electrode; and introducing into saidfield between said envelope of dielectric medium and said centralelectrode a fluid to be treated.

4. "A' method of treating a fluid in an electric field formed between a'central electrode and a surrounding electrode, which method includesthe steps of introducing an envelove of a dielectric medium into saidfield at a relatively high velocity, said envelope being concentric withsaid central electrode; and introducing into said field between saidenvelope of dielectric medium and said central electrode a fluid to betreated, said fluid to be treated being introduced at a relatively lowervelocity than said dielectric medium.

5. A method of treating an emulsion, which includes thestep ofintroducing concentric streams of emulsion and a dielectric medium intoan electric field at difi'erential pressures, the pressure on saiddielectric medium being greater than the pressure on said emulsion.

6. A method of treating a fluid in an electric field formed in atreating space between a central electrode and a surrounding electrodeopen at its ends whereby said treating space is in communication with asurrounding liquid, which method includes the steps of: introducing intosaid field in spaced relationship with said electrodes an envelope of adielectric in a manner to draw a portion of said surrounding liquid intothe outer portion of said treating space; and simultaneously introducingan envelope of said fluid immediately around said central electrode andbetween said central electrode and said envelope of dielectric.

7 A method of treating a fluid in an electric field formed between acentral electrode and a surrounding electrode, which method includes thesteps of: introducing an envelope of the fluid to be treated immediatelyaround set our hands at Los Angeles, California, this -1()th day ofNovember, 1927.

HARMON F. FISHER. WILLIAM WOELF LIN direction and with such velocitythat said envelope of said fluid to be treated is maintained in contactwith said central electrode by the confining action of said envelope ofother material during a material length of the time in which it isinfluenced by said electric field. v

8. A method of treating a fluid in an electric field between a centralelectrode and a surrounding electrode which provides walls converging ina given direction, which method includes the steps of: introducing intoI said field the-fluid to be treated in the form of a fluid envelopearound said central electrode; and introducing into said field in saidgiven direction an envelope of another material surrounding saidenvelope of said fluid to be treated, said envelope of said othermaterial being introduced at such a point that said converging wallsforce it into confining relationship with said envelope of said fluid tobe treated.

9. In an electrode structure, the combination of: a central electrode;an inner nozzle electrically connected to and surrounding

